Nineteen goddamn years is enough. Iâ€™m sorry if you donâ€™t like my language, but when I think about what they did to Paul Kompkoff, Iâ€™m in no mood to nicey-nice words.

Next month marks 19 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped its load of crude oil across the Prince William Sound, Alaska. A big gooey load of this crude spilled over the lands of the Chenega Natives. Paul Kompkoff was a seal-hunter for the village. That is, until Exxonâ€™s ship killed the seal and poisoned the rest of Chenegaâ€™s food supply.

While cameras rolled, Exxon executives promised theyâ€™d compensate everyone. Today, before the US Supreme Court, the big oil companyâ€™s lawyers argued that they shouldnâ€™t have to pay Paul or other fishermen the damages ordered by the courts.

They canâ€™t pay Paul anyway. Heâ€™s dead.

That was part of Exxonâ€™s plan. They told me that. In 1990 and 1991, I worked for the Chenega and Chugach Natives of Alaska on trying to get Exxon to pay up to save the remote villages of the Sound. Exxonâ€™s response was, â€œWe can hold out in court until youâ€™re all dead.â€

Nice guys. But, hell, they were right, werenâ€™t they?

But Exxon didnâ€™t do it alone. They had enablers. One was a failed oil driller named â€œDubya.â€ Exxon was the second largest contributor to George W. Bushâ€™s political career. Enron was firstr. They were a team, Exxon and Enron.

To protect their corporate backsides, Enron’s Chairman Ken Lay, prior to his felony convictions, funded a group called Texans for Law Suit Reform. The idea was to prevent consumers, defrauded stockholders and devastated Natives from suing felonious corporations and their chiefs.

When Dubya went to Washington, Enron and Exxon got their golden pass in the appointment of Chief Justice John Roberts. On Wednesday, as the court heard Exxonâ€™s latest stall, Roberts said, in defense of Exxonâ€™s behavior in Alaska, â€œWhat more can a corporation do?â€

The answer, Your Honor, is plenty.

For starters, Mr. Roberts, Exxon could have turned on the radar. What? On the night the Exxon …more

In his article â€œAdventure Capitalism,â€ Greg Palast exposes the contents of a secret plan for â€œimposing a new regime of low taxes on big business, and quick sales of Iraqâ€™s banks and bridgesâ€”in fact, â€˜ALL state enterprisesâ€™â€”to foreign operators … especially the oil.â€ This economy makeover plan, says Palast, â€œgoes boldly where no invasion plan has gone before.â€

Update by Greg Palast and Reverend Jesse Jackson: There are conspiracy nuts out there on the Internet who think that John Kerry defeated George Bush in Ohio and other states. I know, because I wrote "Kerry Won" for TomPaine.com two days after the election. ...more